George Keene Hayward Coussmaker was born in London in 1759 to Evert and Mary Coussmaker, and entered the military as an ensign in the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards in 1776.[1] He was promoted to lieutenant in 1778[2] and to captain in 1788,[3] but never saw active service and retired in 1795. He married Catherine Southwell in 1790 and fathered two children, George and Sophia (later, the Baroness de Clifford). He died in 1801.

Coussmaker sat for Reynolds 21 times and his horse 8 times between February 9 and April 16, 1782 - an exceptional number of times. Reynolds was paid 205 pounds, plus 10 guineas for the frame. The portrait remained with Coussmaker and his descendants until 1884 when it was sold to William K. Vanderbilt and bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1920. Museum curators describe the picture as "an exceptionally fine work ... The composition is complex and the whole vigorously painted."

1.
Joshua Reynolds
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Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential eighteenth-century English painter, specialising in portraits. He promoted the Grand Style in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect and he was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was knighted by George III in 1769. Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723 the third son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds and his father had been a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, but did not send any of his sons to the university. One of his sisters was Mary Palmer, seven years his senior, author of Devonshire Dialogue, in 1740 she provided £60, half of the premium paid to Thomas Hudson the portrait-painter, for Joshuas pupilage, and nine years later advanced money for his expenses in Italy. His other siblings included Frances Reynolds and Elizabeth Johnson, as a boy, he came under the influence of Zachariah Mudge, whose Platonistic philosophy stayed with him all his life. The work that came to have the most influential impact on Reynolds was Jonathan Richardsons An Essay on the Theory of Painting, having shown an early interest in art, Reynolds was apprenticed in 1740 to the fashionable London portrait painter Thomas Hudson, who had been born in Devon. Hudson had a collection of old master drawings, including some by Guercino, although apprenticed to Hudson for four years, Reynolds only remained with him until summer 1743. Having left Hudson, Reynolds worked for some time as a portrait-painter in Plymouth Dock and he returned to London before the end of 1744, but following his fathers death in late 1745 he shared a house in Plymouth Dock with his sisters. In 1749, Reynolds met Commodore Augustus Keppel, who invited him to join HMS Centurion, of which he had command, while with the ship he visited Lisbon, Cadiz, Algiers, and Minorca. From Minorca he travelled to Livorno in Italy, and then to Rome, while in Rome he suffered a severe cold, which left him partially deaf, and, as a result, he began to carry a small ear trumpet with which he is often pictured. Reynolds travelled homeward overland via Florence, Bologna, Venice, and he was accompanied by Giuseppe Marchi, then aged about 17. Apart from a brief interlude in 1770, Marchi remained in Reynolds employment as an assistant for the rest of the artists career. Following his arrival in England in October 1752, Reynolds spent three months in Devon, before establishing himself in London, where he remained for the rest of his life. He took rooms in St Martins Lane, before moving to Great Newport Street and he achieved success rapidly, and was extremely prolific. In 1760 Reynolds moved into a house, with space to show his works and accommodate his assistants. Alongside ambitious full-length portraits, Reynolds painted large numbers of smaller works, in the late 1750s, at the height of the social season, he received five or six sitters a day, each for an hour. By 1761 Reynolds could command a fee of 80 guineas for a full-length portrait, the clothing of Reynolds sitters was usually painted either by one of his pupils, his studio assistant Giuseppe Marchi, or the specialist drapery painter Peter Toms. Lay figures were used to model the clothes and he had an excellent vantage from his house, Wick House, on Richmond Hill, and painted the view in about 1780

2.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially the Met, is located in New York City and is the largest art museum in the United States, and is among the most visited art museums in the world. Its permanent collection contains two million works, divided among seventeen curatorial departments. The main building, on the edge of Central Park along Manhattans Museum Mile, is by area one of the worlds largest art galleries. A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains a collection of art, architecture. On March 18,2016, the museum opened the Met Breuer museum at Madison Avenue in the Upper East Side, it extends the museums modern, the Met maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, Indian, and Islamic art. The museum is home to collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, as well as antique weapons. Several notable interiors, ranging from first-century Rome through modern American design, are installed in its galleries, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870. The founders included businessmen and financiers, as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day and it opened on February 20,1872, and was originally located at 681 Fifth Avenue. The Met maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, the museum is also home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, and antique weapons and armor from around the world. A number of interiors, ranging from 1st century Rome through modern American design, are permanently installed in the Mets galleries. In addition to its permanent exhibitions, the Met organizes and hosts traveling shows throughout the year. The director of the museum is Thomas P. Campbell, a long-time curator and it was announced on February 28th,2017 that Campbell will be stepping down as the Mets director and CEO, effective June. On March 1st,2017 the BBC reported that Daniel Weiss shall be the acting CEO until a replacement is found, Beginning in the late 19th century, the Met started to acquire ancient art and artifacts from the Near East. From a few tablets and seals, the Mets collection of Near Eastern art has grown to more than 7,000 pieces. The highlights of the include a set of monumental stone lamassu, or guardian figures. The Mets Department of Arms and Armor is one of the museums most popular collections. Among the collections 14,000 objects are many pieces made for and used by kings and princes, including armor belonging to Henry VIII of England, Henry II of France, Rockefeller donated his more than 3, 000-piece collection to the museum. The Mets Asian department holds a collection of Asian art, of more than 35,000 pieces, the collection dates back almost to the founding of the museum, many of the philanthropists who made the earliest gifts to the museum included Asian art in their collections

3.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange

4.
Portrait
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A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person, for this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, nonetheless, many subjects, such as Akhenaten and some other Egyptian pharaohs, can be recognised by their distinctive features. The 28 surviving rather small statues of Gudea, ruler of Lagash in Sumeria between c.2144 -2124 BC, show a consistent appearance with some individuality. Some of the earliest surviving painted portraits of people who were not rulers are the Greco-Roman funeral portraits that survived in the dry climate of Egypts Fayum district. These are almost the only paintings from the world that have survived, apart from frescos, though many sculptures. Although the appearance of the figures differs considerably, they are considerably idealized, the art of the portrait flourished in Ancient Greek and especially Roman sculpture, where sitters demanded individualized and realistic portraits, even unflattering ones. During the 4th century, the portrait began to retreat in favor of a symbol of what that person looked like. In the Europe of the Early Middle Ages representations of individuals are mostly generalized, true portraits of the outward appearance of individuals re-emerged in the late Middle Ages, in tomb monuments, donor portraits, miniatures in illuminated manuscripts and then panel paintings. Moche culture of Peru was one of the few ancient civilizations which produced portraits and these works accurately represent anatomical features in great detail. The individuals portrayed would have been recognizable without the need for other symbols or a reference to their names. The individuals portrayed were members of the elite, priests, warriors. They were represented during several stages of their lives, the faces of gods were also depicted. To date, no portraits of women have been found, there is particular emphasis on the representation of the details of headdresses, hairstyles, body adornment and face painting. One of the portraits in the Western world is Leonardo da Vincis painting titled Mona Lisa. What has been claimed as the worlds oldest known portrait was found in 2006 in the Vilhonneur grotto near Angoulême and is thought to be 27,000 years old. Profile view, full view, and three-quarter view, are three common designations for portraits, each referring to a particular orientation of the head of the individual depicted. Such terms would tend to have greater applicability to two-dimensional artwork such as photography, in the case of three-dimensional artwork, the viewer can usually alter their orientation to the artwork by moving around it

5.
Grenadier Guards
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The Grenadier Guards is an infantry regiment of the British Army. It is the most senior regiment of the Guards Division and and it is not, however, the most senior regiment of the Army, this position being attributed to The Life Guards. The grouping of buttons on the tunic is a way to distinguish among the regiments of Foot Guards. Grenadier Guards buttons are equally spaced and embossed with the Royal Cypher reversed and interlaced surrounded by the Royal Garter bearing the royal motto Honi soit qui mal y pense and their Buff Belt brass clasps also carry the Royal Cypher. Modern Grenadier Guardsmen wear a cap badge of a grenade fired proper with seventeen flames and this cap badge has to be cleaned twice a day – once in the morning, and once in the afternoon. A tarnished grenade is severely frowned upon and can be punished by disciplinary action within the Regiment, a few years later, a similar regiment known as John Russells Regiment of Guards was formed. In 1665, these two regiments were combined to form the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, consisting of 24 companies of men, since then the Grenadier Guards have served ten Kings and four Queens, including the current Queen Elizabeth II. Throughout the 18th century, the regiment took part in a number of campaigns including the War of Spanish Succession, the War of Austrian Succession, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the regiment gained the name Grenadier in July 1815 following a Royal Proclamation. During the Victorian era, the regiment took part in the Crimean War, participating in the fighting at the Alma river, Inkerman, for their involvement in the Crimean War, four members of the 3rd Battalion received the Victoria Cross. In 1900,75 men from the regiment were used to raise a fourth Guards regiment, at the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the regiment consisted of three battalions. The 2nd Battalion of the regiment was sent to France in August, and they took part in the early stages of the fighting during the period known as Race to the Sea, during which time they were involved significantly at the First Battle of Ypres. In February 1915, a fifth Guards regiment was raised, known as The Welsh Guards, in recognition of the significant contribution Welshmen had made to The Grenadier Guards, the regiment transferred five officers and 634 other ranks to the newly formed unit. Following this the four battalions of the regiment fought in a number of significant battles including Loos, the Somme, Cambrai, Arras. Seven members of the regiment received the Victoria Cross during the war, during the Second World War, the regiment was expanded to six service battalions, with the re-raising of the 4th Battalion, and the establishment of the 5th and 6th Battalions. The 3rd Battalion was in the 1st Guards Brigade attached to the 1st Infantry Division, after this, they returned to the United Kingdom, where they undertook defensive duties in anticipation of a possible German invasion. Between October 1940 and October 1941, the regiment raised the 4th, 5th, the 1st and 2nd Battalions were part of the 5th Guards Armoured Brigade, attached to the Guards Armoured Division, and the 4th Battalion was part of the 6th Guards Tank Brigade Group. The battalions took part in the Italian Campaign at Salerno, Monte Camino, Anzio, Monte Cassino, the 5th Battalion was part of 24th Guards Brigade and served with the 1st Division during the Battle of Anzio. After suffering devastating casualties, the brigade was relieved in March 1944, the 6th Battalion served with the 22nd Guards Brigade, later redesignated 201st Guards Motor Brigade, until late 1944 when the battalion was disbanded due to an acute shortage of Guards replacements

6.
Portrait of Omai
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Portrait of Omai is an oil-on-canvas portrait by English artist Sir Joshua Reynolds, completed c.1776. Omai was a Polynesian visitor to England in the 18th century, from the island of Raiatea, he left the Society Islands with Commander Tobias Furneaux on his ship HMS Adventure. Furneauxs ship had left England in 1772, accompanying Captain James Cook on his voyage of discovery in the Pacific. After visiting New Zealand, Omai arrived in England on Furneauxs ship in July 1774, Omai was admired by London society, staying with the President of the Royal Society Sir Joseph Banks and meeting King George III, Dr Samuel Johnson, Frances Burney, and other English celebrities. He returned to the Pacific with Cooks third voyage in July 1776 and he stayed behind after Cook left in November 1777, and Omai died there in late 1779. Reynolds portrayed Omai as a figure, in an idealised depiction echoing Jean-Jacques Rousseaus concept of a noble savage. He stands barefoot, alone in a rural Arcadian landscape with unusual palm-like trees and his adlocutio pose was inspired by the Apollo Belvedere, it emphasises the tattoos on his hands, but also makes classical allusions. The work measures 90 ×57 inches and it was painted in around 1775, and was one of 12 portraits exhibited by Reynolds at the Royal Academys eighth exhibition in 1776, to great acclaim. It was praised as a likeness of the subject. The other paintings exhibited by Reynolds in 1776 included a full portrait of Georgiana. A pencil preparatory sketch is held by the National Library of Australia as part of the Rex Nan Kivell Collection, the painting was reproduced as a mezzotint engraving by Johann Jacobé, published by John Boydell in 1780. Reynolds was not commissioned to paint Omais portrait, and the work remained in his studio until his death in 1792 and it was auctioned by Greenwoods in April 1796, and acquired by the art dealer Michael Bryan for 100 guineas. Bryan sold it to art collector Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle and it was not seen again at a public exhibition until it appeared at the Royal Academy in 1954. The painting was included in the estate of George Howard, Baron Howard of Henderskelfe when he died in November 1984. It was put on sale by his son, Simon Howard, to meet the costs of a divorce, Howard offered to sell the work to the Tate Gallery, but its suggested price of £5.5 million was rejected. Auctioned at Sothebys in September 2001, the painting was bought by London art dealer Guy Morrison, the hammer price of £9.4 million was a record for a work by Reynolds and then the second highest amount paid for a painting by a British artist. The painting was acquired by Irish businessman John Magnier and he was refused an export licence while the Tate Gallery sought funding to make an offer to acquire the work. An anonymous donation allowed the gallery to make an offer of £12.5 million, but Magnier refused to sell, and in the meantime he refused to allow the painting to be displayed in public in the UK

7.
Mary Palmer
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Mary Palmer, née Mary Reynolds, was an author from Devon, England, who wrote Devonshire Dialogue, once considered the best piece of literature in the vernacular of Devon. She was a sister of the artist Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mary was the eldest daughter and third child of Samuel Reynolds, master of the Plympton Earl grammar school, Devonshire, by his wife, Theophila Potter. She was 7 years older than her brother Joshua Reynolds and her fondness for drawing is said to have influenced him when a boy. In 1740 she provided £60, half of the premium paid to Thomas Hudson the portrait-painter, for Joshuas pupilage, Sir Joshua Reynolds painted two portraits of his sister Mary, one made about 1747, the other when she was aged about 60 years of age. Both portraits descended to her great-grandson, George Stawell of Great Torrington and their other siblings included the artist Frances Reynolds and Elizabeth Johnson. Mary Palmer was the author of Devonshire Dialogue, considered by the Dictionary of National Biography in 1895 to be the best piece of literature in the vernacular of Devon and it gives an account of the customs, characters and dialect unique to western England. Written in the middle of the 18th century, it was shown to friends and extracts were published in periodicals during her lifetime, a portion appeared in 1837 with a glossary by her grandson James Frederick Palmer, son of John Palmer. A complete version was edited by her daughter Theophila Gwatkin in 1839, on 18 July 1740 Mary Reynolds married John Palmer of Great Torrington, Devonshire, who trained as a solicitor. In 1752 he built a house at Great Torrington now known as Palmer House, John and Mary Palmer had five children, two sons and three daughters, Joseph Palmer, Dean of Cashel, and author of A Four Months Tour in France. He resided at Beam House, Great Torrington, John Palmer, Honorary Canon of Lincoln Cathedral Mary II Palmer, who together with her sister Offy spent much time in London with their uncle, Sir Joshua Reynolds. He had great affection for them, painted their portraits, in 1792 she married Murrough OBrien, 5th Earl of Inchiquin, later 1st Marquis of Thomond. Mary died without issue in 1820 and left as her heir her brother John Palmer, Theophila Palmer married in 1781 Robert Lovell Gwatkin of Killiow, Cornwall. Life and times of Sir Joshua Reynolds, a Dialogue in the Devonshire Dialect by A Lady to which is added a Glossary London, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman

8.
Royal Academy of Arts
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The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. The Royal Academy of Arts was founded through an act of King George III on 10 December 1768 with a mission to promote the arts of design in Britain through education and exhibition. Supporters wanted to foster a national school of art and to encourage appreciation, fashionable taste in 18th-century Britain was based on continental and traditional art forms, providing contemporary British artists little opportunity to sell their works. From 1746 the Foundling Hospital, through the efforts of William Hogarth, the success of this venture led to the formation of the Society of Artists of Great Britain and the Free Society of Artists. Both these groups were primarily exhibiting societies, their success was marred by internal factions among the artists. The combined vision of education and exhibition to establish a school of art set the Royal Academy apart from the other exhibiting societies. It provided the foundation upon which the Royal Academy came to dominate the art scene of the 18th and 19th centuries, supplanting the earlier art societies. Sir William Chambers, a prominent architect, used his connections with George III to gain royal patronage and financial support of the Academy, the painter Joshua Reynolds was made its first president. Francis Milner Newton was elected the first secretary, a post he held for two decades until his resignation in 1788, the instrument of foundation, signed by George III on 10 December 1768, named 34 founder members and allowed for a total membership of 40. William Hoare and Johann Zoffany were added to this list later by the King and are known as nominated members, among the founder members were two women, a father and daughter, and two sets of brothers. The Royal Academy was initially housed in cramped quarters in Pall Mall, although in 1771 it was given temporary accommodation for its library and schools in Old Somerset House, then a royal palace. In 1780 it was installed in purpose-built apartments in the first completed wing of New Somerset House, located in the Strand and designed by Chambers, the Academy moved in 1837 to Trafalgar Square, where it occupied the east wing of the recently completed National Gallery. These premises soon proved too small to house both institutions, in 1868,100 years after the Academys foundation, it moved to Burlington House, Piccadilly, where it remains. Burlington House is owned by the British Government, and used rent-free by the Royal Academy, the first Royal Academy exhibition of contemporary art, open to all artists, opened on 25 April 1769 and ran until 27 May 1769. 136 works of art were shown and this exhibition, now known as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, has been staged annually without interruption to the present day. In 1870 the Academy expanded its programme to include a temporary annual loan exhibition of Old Masters. The range and frequency of these exhibitions have grown enormously since that time. Britains first public lectures on art were staged by the Royal Academy, led by Reynolds, the first president, a program included lectures by Dr. William Hunter, John Flaxman, James Barry, Sir John Soane, and J. M. W. Turner

9.
William Kissam Vanderbilt
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William Kissam Vanderbilt I was an American heir, businessman, philanthropist and horsebreeder. Born into the Vanderbilt family, he managed his family railroad investments, William Kissam Vanderbilt I was born on December 12,1849. His father was William Henry Vanderbilt and his paternal grandfather was Cornelius Vanderbilt. He managed his family railroad investments, in 1879, after taking over P. T. Barnums Great Roman Hippodrome which was on railroad property by Madison Square Park, he renamed the facility Madison Square Garden. Vanderbilt was one of the founders of The Jockey Club and he was a shareholder and president of the Sheepshead Bay Race Track in Brooklyn, New York and the owner of a successful racing stable. In 1896, he built the American Horse Exchange at 50th Street, in 1911 he leased it the Shubert Organization who then transformed it into the Winter Garden Theatre. Among the horses he owned was the U. S, racing Hall of Fame filly Maskette, purchased from Castleton Farm in Lexington, Kentucky for broodmare services at his French breeding farm. She was born in 1853, in Mobile, Alabama, to Murray Forbes Smith, a commission merchant, Consuelo Vanderbilt was born on March 2,1877, followed by William Kissam Vanderbilt II on March 2,1878, and Harold Stirling Vanderbilt on July 6,1884. Alva later coerced Consuelo into marrying Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough on November 6,1895, alva divorced Vanderbilt in March 1895, at a time when divorce was rare among the elite, and received a large financial settlement reported to be in excess of $10 million. The grounds for divorce were allegations of Vanderbilts adultery, alva remarried to one of their old family friends, Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, on January 11,1896. In 1903, Vanderbilt married Anne Harriman, daughter of banker Oliver Harriman and she was a widow to sportsman Samuel Stevens Sands and to Lewis Morris Rutherfurd, Jr. son of the astronomer Lewis Morris Rutherfurd. Her second husband died in Switzerland in 1901 and she had two sons by her first marriage and two daughters by her second marriage. She had no children by Vanderbilt, like other Vanderbilts, he built magnificent houses. His residences included Idle Hour on Long Island and Marble House, designed by Richard Morris Hunt, in Newport, Hunt also designed Vanderbilts 660 Fifth Avenue mansion. Vanderbilt was a co-owner of the yacht Defender, which won the 1895 Americas Cup, Vanderbilt was a founder and president of the New Theatre. He was also a member of the Jekyll Island Club aka The Millionaires Club, Vanderbilt made significant charitable contributions to Vanderbilt University, a private university in Nashville, Tennessee named for his grandfather. Vanderbilt died in Paris, France on July 22,1920 and his remains were brought home and interred in the Vanderbilt family vault in the Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp, Staten Island, New York. Vanderbilts portrait, painted by F. W. Wright from a painting by Richard Hall between 1911 and 1921, was donated to Vanderbilt University in 1921, it is hung in Kirkland Hall

10.
Baron de Clifford
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Not to be confused with Baron Clifford or Baron Clifford of Chudleigh Baron de Clifford is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1299 for Robert de Clifford, feudal baron of Clifford in Herefordshire, feudal baron of Skipton in Yorkshire, the title was created by writ, which means that it can descend through both male and female lines. The Norman family which took the name de Clifford settled in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066 and was first seated in England at Clifford Castle in Herefordshire. The first Baron served as Earl Marshal of England but was killed at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 and his 8th generation descendant the 11th Baron, was created Earl of Cumberland in 1525, whose grandson the 3rd Earl was a noted naval commander. On the latters death in 1605 the earldom passed to his younger brother, the barony of de Clifford was claimed in 1628 by his daughter and only child, Anne Clifford, but the House of Lords postponed the hearing. The barony remained dormant until 1678, when Nicholas Tufton, 3rd Earl of Thanet, was allowed to claim the peerage and he was the son of Lady Margaret Sackville, daughter of the aforementioned Anne Clifford. On the death in 1721 of the Earls younger brother, the sixth Earl, the earldom was inherited by the late Earls nephew, the seventh Earl. The barony fell into abeyance between the Earls five daughters, Lady Katherine, Lady Anne, Lady Isabel, Lady Margaret and it remained in abeyance until 1734 when the abeyance was terminated in favour of the third daughter, Margaret, who became the nineteenth Baroness. She was the wife of Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, on her death in 1775 the title again fell into abeyance, this time between her sisters and their heirs. The abeyance was terminated only a later in favour of Edward Southwell. He was the grandson of Lady Catherine Tufton, eldest daughter of the sixth Earl of Thanet and he was succeeded by his son, the 21st Baron. The peerage was called out of abeyance in 1833 in favour of Sophia Coussmaker and she was the only surviving child of Hon. Catherine Southwell and her husband George Coussmaker. The 22nd baroness was the wife of John Russell, third son of Lord William Russell, third son of Francis Russell, Marquess of Tavistock, eldest son and heir of John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford. She was succeeded by her son, the 23rd Baron, Liberal Member of Parliament for Tavistock, as of 2013 the title is held by his great-great-grandson John Edward Southwell Russell, 27th Baron de Clifford, who succeeded his father in 1982. As a descendant of the 4th Duke of Bedford he is also in remainder to that dukedom, members of the family have also been created baronets as Baronet Clifford of Flaxbourne, New Zealand, Baronet Clifford of the Navy and Baronet Clifford-Constable of Tixall, Staffordshire. The House of Clifford from Before the Conquest, ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines 64–32, 82–32, 156–30, 161–29, 205–32. New York, St Martins Press,1990

11.
Lady Cockburn and Her Three Eldest Sons
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Lady Cockburn and Her Three Eldest Sons is an oil on canvas portrait by Joshua Reynolds. The painting passed to Mister Cockburns son George, and then to his daughter, Mister Hamilton and it was bequeathed to Londons National Gallery in 1906. The painting is one of the few signed by Reynolds, Lady Cockburns dress bears his signature, Lady Cockburn was the daughter of Francis Ayscough and his wife Anne. She married Sir James Cockburn the 8th Baronet and became Lady Cockburn of Langton in Berwick in 1769, the money was raised on her fathers estate and included three houses in London and two farms. Lady Cockburns first three sons are depicted in the portrait, the first son, James, became the 9th baronet and Governor of Bermuda, and her second son, George became an Admiral of the Fleet and the 10th Baronet. Lady Cockburns daughter, Augusta, was wed in 1807

12.
Grand manner
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Grand Manner refers to an idealized aesthetic style derived from classical art, and the modern classic art of the High Renaissance. In the eighteenth century, British artists and connoisseurs used the term to describe paintings that incorporated visual metaphors in order to suggest noble qualities, paul in particular, we are told by himself, that his bodily presence was mean. Alexander is said to have been of a low stature, a painter ought not so to represent him, agesilaus was low, lame, and of a mean appearance. None of these defects ought to appear in a piece of which he is the hero, in conformity to custom, I call this part of the art history painting, it ought to be called poetical, as in reality it is. In the late nineteenth century the rhetoric of the Grand Manner was adopted not only by the nouveaux riches, when especially ostentatious in presentation, typically in full-length works, this has also been referred to as the swagger portrait. Grand style, a concept in rhetoric National Gallery of Art Tate glossary

The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. It has a unique …

Image: Burlington House

A 19th century illustration of the Royal Academy

Satirical drawing of Sir William Chambers, one of the founders, trying to slay the 8-headed hydra of the Incorporated Society of Artists

Study for Henry Singleton's painting The Royal Academicians assembled in their council chamber to adjudge the Medals to the successful students in Painting, Sculpture, Architecture and Drawing, which hangs in the Royal Academy. Ca. 1793.